ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee is set to meet today (Wednesday) in Peshawar to determine the moon sighting for Ramadan 2026, with Maulana Abdul Khabeer Azad in the chair, according to Radio Pakistan.
The central committee will convene at 4:30 p.m. at the Auqaf Hall under Maulana Azad, while the zonal committees will meet in Lahore, Karachi, Quetta, and Islamabad.
Earlier, the state-run news agency APP, quoting Suparco, Pakistan's national space agency, reported that the crescent for Ramadan 1447 Hijri is likely to be visible on Feb. 18 (today), making Feb. 19 the expected first day of fasting.
It is estimated that at sunset on Feb. 18, the moon's age will be approximately 25 hours and 48 minutes. In coastal areas, the time difference between sunset and moonset is expected to be about 59 minutes, increasing the chances of a naked-eye sighting.
A day earlier, the Ramadan crescent was sighted in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar and Kuwait, whose residents are observing their first fast today.
The countries reporting no sighting on Tuesday include Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, the Philippines, Japan, Turkiye, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, and Brunei.
The Muslim world welcomes Ramadan with deep religious devotion, as over a billion believers fast to practice patience, self-discipline, and generosity.
Islamic months last 29 or 30 days, with their start and end determined by the sighting of the crescent moon, so Ramadan does not fall on the same Gregorian date each year.
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